ambassadors and the object they had in view; and calling upon all the citizens who had any martial spirit to enlist under the banners of the Mysorean sovereign, who made the most liberal offers of pay and allowances. They thus succeeded in levying exactly ninety-nine persons: blacks, browns, and whites, citizens, soldiers, and sailors, constituting the sum total of martial spirit in the Isle of France.
With this motley group the ambassadors were fain to depart; and landing at Mangalore on the 26th of April, 1798, they proceeded to Seringapatam. Great, indeed, was the Sultan's disappointment when he beheld this miserable substitute for the 30,000 soldiers he had expected. But he seems to have been in a state of blind and violent excitement, and welcomed to his capital the embassy with their slender accompaniment; still fondly encouraging the hope that by their means he might yet accomplish the herculean task of expelling the hated English from the Indian soil.
One of the earliest measures of Tippoo's new friends was to organise a Jacobin club, on those principles the propagation of which had already deluged Europe with blood. This association was not merely tolerated by the Sultan – it was honoured by his special approbation, and he even condescended to become a member of it. Whether or not he submitted to the fraternal embrace is uncertain; but it is beyond a doubt that he was enrolled among these assertors of liberty and equality, and added to the titles which he previously bore another which, in India at least, had the charm of novelty: the Sultan of Mysore became Citizen Tippoo! The tree of liberty was planted, and the cap of equality elevated. The citizen adventurers met in primary assembly; "instructed each other," says Colonel Wilks, "in the enforcement of their new rights, and the abandonment of their old duties." Ripaud made a speech, replete with ignorance and absurdity; the emblems of royalty were publicly burnt; and the following oath, a masterpiece of folly and in-
